Speed Skating

No athlete likes chaos, but if you're a certain kind of TV viewer, a competition in disarray is the best kind of competition of all. In other words, you probably enjoy watching speed skating. Short track's alternate name might as well be Chaos on Ice (not to be confused with Chess on Ice, a.k.a. curling). But good old-fashioned long-track can be chaotic too, especially if it's the shortest of long tracks, the 500 meters. That sport of two long-limbed, full-bodied synthetic outfits on an oval, and screaming fans in orange, saw its own randomness on Monday, as a trio of Dutch men won the three medals, going 1-2-3 in the competition.

The Winter Olympics, from Sochi, Russia, on TV. Many of the most popular events will be broadcast in prime time and on the weekends on NBC. NBCSP is also airing events in prime time and picking up a number of live events in the early-morning hours. Hockey and curling can be found on MSNBC and USA. Curling also will air on CNBC. And a few events will be exclusively online at www.NBCOlympics.com . Below is the latest television schedule for the 2014 Winter Olympics for Friday, Feb 20, through Sunday, Feb. 23: Friday, Feb. 21 Biathlon, Freestyle Skiing (6:30 a.m. NBCSP)

Frances C. McFate, a dazzling Santa Ana speed roller skater who has won about all the speed skating titles she can, thinks that when her skating days are over, she might develop into a good triathlon competitor. After all, she's a proven winner, and at age 39, she's still going strong. "I don't believe in doing anything that might embarrass me," she said, during a speed skating practice session at the Skate Ranch in Santa Ana, "and losing is not acceptable to me." She holds the U.S.

The suits showed up. The racers in them did not. When U.S. speedskaters took the ice Saturday in the men's 1,500 meters, they wore racing suits by Under Armour made for their successful World Cup season. Gone were the Mach 39 suits Under Armour debuted for these Games, the ones that had come to symbolize American futility. But the day ended as every day in Sochi has since the opening ceremony: no U.S. skaters on the podium at Adler Arena. Brian Hansen finished seventh and Shani Davis -- who took silver in the 1,500 the last two Games -- was 11th.

The United States speed skating team, which couldn't win a medal in the 1984 Olympics, couldn't begin this year's Games without a controversy. David Cruikshank, Eric Henriksen and John Baskfield appealed for entry Friday in the men's 1,000-meter race, but after a three-hour meeting that lasted into the night, a special U.S. Olympic Committee panel turned down their appeal. The three skaters protested being left out of the race by U.S. speed skating team management.

Janie Eickhoff is a 5-foot-2 college freshman who has legs to put you in mind of Bo Jackson, and a repertoire of accomplishments to match. Janie knows cycling. She became a track cyclist five years ago, after a knee injury ended the soccer career she had begun by making the Los Alamitos High School varsity as a freshman. After a year as a competitive cyclist, she was a junior national champion. "I didn't decide I liked it until the junior nationals in '85," Eickhoff said.

Though the Winter Olympics continue to dominate the airwaves, the networks and cable channels are counter-programming this weekend with music specials that run the gamut from B.B. King to David Bowie to a celebration of Motown. Bravo presents "B.B. King: King of the Blues," tonight at 7. The documentary follows the renowned bluesman as he leaves on his annual Mississippi Homecoming Tour.

The Winter Olympics, from Sochi, Russia, on TV. Many of the most popular events will be broadcast in prime time and on the weekends on NBC. NBCSP is also airing events in prime time and picking up a number of live events in the early-morning hours. Hockey and curling can be found on MSNBC and USA. Curling also will air on CNBC. And a few events will be exclusively online at www.NBCOlympics.com . Below is the latest television schedule for the 2014 Winter Olympics for Friday, Feb 20, through Sunday, Feb. 23: Friday, Feb. 21 Biathlon, Freestyle Skiing (6:30 a.m. NBCSP)

No athlete likes chaos, but if you're a certain kind of TV viewer, a competition in disarray is the best kind of competition of all. In other words, you probably enjoy watching speed skating. Short track's alternate name might as well be Chaos on Ice (not to be confused with Chess on Ice, a.k.a. curling). But good old-fashioned long-track can be chaotic too, especially if it's the shortest of long tracks, the 500 meters. That sport of two long-limbed, full-bodied synthetic outfits on an oval, and screaming fans in orange, saw its own randomness on Monday, as a trio of Dutch men won the three medals, going 1-2-3 in the competition.

There is no medal. But there is a certificate. That much Jennifer Rodriguez earned after a top-eight finish in the women's 1,000-meter speedskating event Thursday -- a trophy with print, not glint. So there is a congratulatory certificate. There is optimism about Rodriguez's 1,500-meter race Sunday. There is a growing hope for the next Olympic cycle. But there are no medals. So there is a lot of relative thinking regarding the U.S. women's speedskating team's performance in these Winter Games.

Not unusually, Shani Davis spent most of Wednesday alone in his room, except for a morning jog. He studied his journals and race plan. Again he endeavored to do what no one had. Again he internalized any pressures and doubts, trusting only himself to escape them. Later, gliding along the Richmond Olympic Oval in the minutes before the 1,000-meter race that could redefine his grip on history, he was once more effectively alone, as the Chicago native likes it and unapologetically means it to be. Hands on hips, Davis snapped off a yawn.

Early Tuesday morning under a sunny sky, Shani Davis hopped a fence across the street from the Richmond Olympic Oval, striding inside for the required round of drug testing while once again on the eve of history. No man has won two gold medals in the 1,000-meter long-track speedskating event, and Wednesday, Davis has the chance to do just that. But there is an ancillary challenge too, in the uncomfortable irony that the staunchly independent, self-professed solo entity will skate to rescue a team.

Jen Rodriguez elected to march and soak in the majesty and malfunction of the opening ceremony for the first time since 1998. She veered away from training to visit the Nike House. She made an excursion to the Oakley House. Instead of drowning herself in preparation and rigid routine, the speedskating veteran of four Winter Games opened her eyes and her schedule to these sidelights for, in effect, one reason. "I have zero expectations," a chipper Rodriguez said Monday. She participated in her first Olympics in 1998, won bronze medals in 2002 and then retired from the sport for two years after 2006, and now returns to the Winter Games blithely unwound.

Of the many countries participating at the Vancouver Olympics in February, add Colbert Nation to the list. On Monday's "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert announced that his show had become the primary sponsor of the U.S. speed skating team. The team's largest annual cash sponsor, DSB Bank NV, left it in the lurch after declaring bankruptcy in October. The name "Colbert Nation" -- the catchall for the legion of ardent fans of the satirical Comedy Central program -- will be emblazoned on the team's uniforms.

Sixteen-year-old Duvell Howard had never seen a pair of ice skates until a few months ago. Howard lives in Compton, and the only activities participated in were at Compton Salvation Army recreation center, where he is president of the Youth Fellowship. But now Howard dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete. "In my neighborhood, all you see is gangs fighting. When Harold (Fryer) told us we could go try out for speed skating, I went and stuck with it," he said.

Mary Docter was 30 before she found the right word to describe herself. It was not any of those proud, chest-swelling words that come with being a three-time Olympian, words such as athlete, hero or role model. It was addict.

One's a failed hockey player, the other a Summer Olympic medalist. As speedskaters, Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes made Canadian Olympic history. Using a finishing kick honed from her days as a world-class cyclist, Hughes won the women's 5,000 meters Saturday and Klassen took third, adding to impressive medals totals for them and their team. Klassen's bronze was her fifth medal of the Turin Games, the most by any athlete.

Finally, for the Americans, a happy ending, a classy ending, an Olympic ending. Jogging around the inside of the Oval Lingotto track after winning a silver medal in the 10,000 meters Friday, exhausted Chad Hedrick wearily waved his country's flag. The thousands of fans who had long ignored him suddenly began waving back. There were cheers, and chants, and open arms, and then there was a song. It was coming from the peppy Dutch band, Small Beer. It was the U.S. national anthem.